I wanted to paint this historical house and add a dog in front of the door, but the top section bothers me. all the blank space.

Hi Carol, you’re completely on the right track! Here’s my quick illustration of your idea:

The photo on the left is your original shot, slightly re-oriented to take out some of the camera tilt. Below is my sketch of the horizon line, which illustrates how the low HL gives the ceiling more prominence. In the photo on the right, I’ve raised the HL, and as seen in the little pencil sketch this increases the amount of floor we are seeing. In my rough sketches, the proportions of the length/width of the back wall changed between sketches, I didn’t mean to do that, they should remain the same.

Try sitting down low in your hallway and take in your perception of the ceiling and floor, and then stand up (or safely on chair) and check out what it then looks like.I did not change anything about the wall/windows/door other than move it upwards.

If you were to see in your mind’s eye the front of the house from a higher vantage point, the porch light would seem lower than it is in the second photo, of course, you may place it anywhere that’s aesthetically pleasing.
But to centre the light on the ceiling, here’s how:

The new centre of the ceiling on the right is at the intersection of the “X”.

This will look great with the dog!

Have fun! This will make a great painting,

Cheers!

Hi Carol,

Glad that helped…

I use Photoshop, which has an extension called Bridge for managing photos, and within Bridge is Camera Raw where there’s a panel for an approximate fix, resulting in the first photo.

Back in photoshop, to create the second photo with the higher Horizon Line I selected the wall and moved it upwards as-is. Then I selected the porch floor and stretched it upwards.

Cheers!

Cameras and linear perspective have always been tricky since the human eye and mind don’t perceive and record the world on a flat plane. The old bellows cameras had ways to slide and swing the glass plate negative to correct-for or exaggerate the distortion. Now better-quality software and some very-technical lens do the same. The artist can also do the same through composition and artistic license.